"You wonder just how Chandor can manage to make a feature film about a man stuck on a damaged and sinking boat seem dramatic. It’s the detail and precision of his storytelling style that makes 'All Is Lost' so engrossing. As viewers, we are entirely caught up in the sailor’s struggle."

"As close to pure existential cinema as American filmmaking is likely to get these days, 'All Is Lost' finds writer-director J.C. Chandor decisively avoiding the sophomore slump with a picture that could scarcely be more different from his 2011 debut, 'Margin Call.' An impressively spare, nearly dialogue-free stranded-at-sea drama that strips characterization down to basic survival instinct, this emotionally resonant one-man showcase for Robert Redford faces a fair number of marketing challenges, given its audacious minimalism and proximity to a much splashier castaway adventure, 'Life of Pi.'"

"Redford’s exceptional performance will serve as the primary commercial calling card for Lionsgate upon October release. 'The Old Man and the Sea' certainly represents a template for this straightforward, intensely focused tale of a man battling the elements, although Chandor has stripped his drama of any extra baggage, be it allegorical, metaphorical or spiritual. It is what it is, just about a man exercising his skill and limited options in the face of happenstance, bad luck and whatever nature decides to throw at him. Which is plenty.

"On one level this pared-down strategy makes for a beautifully simple idea: we are presented with the human as animal, scrapping with the fish and sharks (occasionally seen, creepily, circling under Redford's craft). But it also makes forcefully clear the advantages of the conventions of character fleshing-out: we are never allowed inside Redford's mind, and the character remains almost entirely opaque."

CANNES, France — Jerry Lewis is premiering his new film — his first in 18 years — in Cannes on Thursday night, as the Daniel Noah-directed “Max Rose” plays for festgoers. But the octogenarian was creating a little in-person drama at the festival Thursday afternoon,...

CANNES, France -- A trip to Le Marche, the film market at Cannes, is always a tonic experience. The energy created by the unabashed desire to make large sums of money is a refreshing change of pace after the more rarefied experiences of other parts of the festival.

"Philomena," the latest film from Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Frears (“The Queen,” “The Grifters”), has been acquired by Weinstein Co. for distribution in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain after a bidding war with several studios.